Reading the stories
by OrangeOwls
Summary: The demigods and friends go ten years back in time, to read some PJO and HoO stories with the gods, for what reason entertainment! Read if you like, enjoy! T for slight violence. (Discontinues sorry guys)
1. Book 1 Chapter 1

**Okay everyone I know that other people have done this but I wanted to try this out, now please don't curse me out of anything. Thanks you guys, for everything.**

Set when everyone where still kids.

The counsel were having a meeting like always, it was the Winter solstice, and Hades was there sitting on a Makeshift throne at the end. Everyone was there except Zeus who just came in.

A lightning strike and Zeus is in the house. He looked at everyone and sat down.

"Meeting Started" He sat down on his throne holding his bolt next to him. "Toda-"

Several flashes later and a bunch on demigod came out all piled on the ground. None of the gods recognized any of the demigods save Hades who was staring at Nico.

A moment past before all the gods and goddess pulled weapons out and pointed it at the demigods. Ares cracked his knuckles and grinned "This is going to be good."

"WHO DARES ENTERS OLY-" Zeus started before get interrupted

"Hey Uncle why are we here," A boy that looks too much like Poseidon questioned

Zeus turned to Poseidon. "YOU HAD A CHILD?!" He was gripping his bolt tightly until a girl in a hunter clothes jump out.

"Don't you dare!" she yelled.

Zeus turned to her and froze "Thalia?" Everyone was looking at the interaction between them.

"Yeah?" she looked bored

"YOU"RE ALIVE!" He yelled

"Duh I've been alive for what apparently 20 years?" She looked at an Athena teenager. "Annabeth?"

"No 22 years" Everyone on the more godly side looked shocked they just saw Annabeth yesterday when Zeus saved Thalia. She was only seven years old and now she aged ten years.

Annabeth spoke again. "Ahh what year is it?"

Athena stared until she mumble the answer. All the demigods gasped loudly. "We're ten years from the future!" The gods gasped again.

Athena looked at all of them. "What are you doing here?" The demigods looked dumbfounded

"We don't know."

Suddenly a flash and a note appear in front of Hera, she picked it up and read it out loud

" _Dear Gods and demigods,_

 _I have brought you hear to read about the past for the demigods and the future for the gods. I have brought you a book as seen for Percy's Point of view, many others may come after it. For what reason no idea I was bored, and this seen entertaining enough. For now read the book and don't kill the demigods. Also demigods you may not reveal it all to the gods yet, they will find out soon enough. Demigods introduce your selves._

 _\- N"_

Everyone looked at each other confused until a book flashed in. 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief"

Annabeth picked it up and looked back at the gods. "Well then we should introduce our selves. I am Annabeth Chase, I am 17 years old, a daughter of Athena, the second time heroine of Olympus and the architect of Olympus." The gods gasped

"Why do we need an architect? Did something happen? HOW ARE YOU THE SECOND TIME HEROINE OF OLYMPUS?" Apollo cried out nervously.

The demigods looked at each other "We can't tell yet" Annabeth finally said. "Also Please don't gasp anymore until we finish introducing our selves." The gods nodded.

Thalia stepped up "I am Thalia Grace, Lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis." She looked at Artemis who was gray "I'm sorry about Zoe," Artemis paled even more.

Nico stepped up as Thalia stepped back. "I am Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, King of ghost, Ambassador of Pluto and is about 80 something years old." He ignored the confused looks and smiled sadly at Hades "Bianca was my sister, former hunter of Artemis and is gone"

A satyr, Grover stood up straighter as Hades had a tear leak from his eye. "My name is Grover Underwood, I am the new Lord of the Wild, The chosen one of Pam and the leader of the counsel of Cloven Elders," The gods stared at him, Chosen one of Pam?

A girl with a Cherokee heritage came forward. "I'm Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite" Aphrodite gasped "and a hero of Olympus"

A boy with curly hair and a girl Calypso stood infront of the gods "I'm Leo, Son of Hephaestus, a hero of Olympus, Bad boy Supreme, Super-sized Mcshizzle, Comman-" Calypso smacked him "And this is Calypso whom you release already so don't kill us!" He yelled as Zeus stood up with his bolt. He frown and sat down.

A ROMAN boy with blond hair and the same coloured eyes as Zeus and Thalia stepped up, the gods gaped at him

Zeus looked at him. "JASON? You're a Roman!"

Jason looked at him and shrugged so did three other demigods. "I am Jason, Son of Jupitor, Champion of Juno, another hero of Olympus, and former Praetor of the Twelfth Legion"

Another Roman boy who was Asian walked forward with a girl with dark skin. "I am Frank Zhang, Son of Mars, Legacy of Poseidon, Praetor of the twelfth Legion, and a hero of Olympus." The girl continued "I am Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, a favourite of Hecate and a hero of Olympus."

Three more people to be introduced. A Roman girl with an emotionless face came "I am Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, the daughter of Bellona, and I am the Praetor of the twelfth Legion, a lesser hero of Olympus."

A girl with frizzy red hair and green eyes stepped forward "I am Rachel Elizabeth Dare, I am a clear sighted mortal, and I am the most recent Oracle of the Delphi." Before the finally person could introduce them selves Apollo bursted out "You're the new Oracle of the Delphi?" He said excitely before Hermes elbowed him hard.

Finally a boy stepped up with sea-green eyes, and messed up black hair. He looked almost exactly like Poseidon "I am Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, the two time hero of Olympus, Savior of Olympus, Seaweed Brain and all the other titles.

Annabeth clapped her hand "Okay I'l read first" She ignore all the word of protest from the gods.

 **Chapter One**

 **I Accidentally Vaporized my Pre-Algebra Teacher**

Annabeth snorted and looked at Percy who was hiding behind her in embarrassment

 **Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Me too Percy, me too" Nico mumbled as all the demigod nodded their head.

 **If you're reading this because you think you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth and try and live a normal life.**

"Too late" Leo coughed

 **Being a Half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"No shizz," Nico mumbled quite loudly

 **If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

 **"** All of us do" Jason told the book.

 **But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

 **Don't say I didn't warn you.**

 **"** Too Late," Percy mumbled

 **My name is Percy Jackson.**

Percy blushed in embarrassment

 **I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

 **Am I a troubled kid?**

 **Yeah. You could say that.**

People snorted.

 **I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

 **I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

 **"** Every field trip is torture when it has information" Leo told the book, Annabeth and Athena glared at Leo until he hid behind Calypso.

 **But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

 **Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

 **"** Hey Class isn't that boring!" Athena cried out, at the book. AT THE BOOK.

 **I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

 **Boy, was I wrong.**

Annabeth looked at Percy with the book in her hand "Percy what is with this writing? It's nothing like you, if anything you barely write a sentence let alone a book or more." Percy shrugged " I didn't write any book, remember it came from 'N'" Annabeth and Athena looked at each other until they accepted the explanation, Athena still found it weird that her seven year had now turned into a seventeen year old.

 **See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

 **"** Classic Percy, " Everyone looked at Percy, who was getting pink-er by the minute.

 **This trip, I was determined to be good.**

 **"** Lies Percy all lies," Nico looked at Percy

 **All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

 **"** What's klep-to-maniac?" Leo asked trying to sound the word out.

"It's is recurrent failure to resist urges to steal iteams that you don't generally need and that usually has little value. Kleptomania is a serious mental health disorder that can cause much emotional pain to you and your loved ones if not treated" Athena answered.

"She is a dictionary I'll tell you," Apollo mumble to Hermes who snickered.

 **Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

 **"** Okay Percy That's rude." Grover told Percy.

"IT WAS WHEN I DIDN"T KNOW YOU WERE A DARN SATYR!" Percy Yelled, they were on the oposite ends of the group, everyone else looked at them amused.

"At least you got the enchilada day part right" Grover offered. He looked at Annabeth to continue

 **Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

 **"** Who would have ever expect?" Percy said out loud to him self.

 **"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

 **"** I Hated her too," Grover mumbled

 **Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

 **"** NO TYSON LIKE PEANUT BUTTER." Percy yelled

Poseidon coughed and looked at Percy "TYSON'S STILL ALIVE?" Percy nodded.

 **He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

 **"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

 **"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

 **"** I always get blamed no matter what," Percy mumbled, lots of people nodded.

 **Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

 **"** So true," mumbled Frank

 **Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

 **He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

 **It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"It can't be any older than 2700 years" Athena corrected _(Quick thanks to HermioneAnnabeth11)_

 **He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"I was actually interested" Percy mumbled.

 **Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"I wonder why" Leo asked, no one answered him

 **From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"It was actually the other way around she's the devil spawn," Percy corrected the book.

 **One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"The good times," Grover mumbled, everyone looked at him

"Grover please be quiet," Annabeth asked him and closed his mouth

 **Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

 **Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

 **It came out louder than I meant it to.**

 **The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

 **"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

"It's weird thinking Chrion would call his student by his or her's last name." Grover mentioned, he did his best Chiron Imatation "Mr. Underwood, Ms La Rue, Mrs Jackson aka Ms. Chase."

Annabeth and Percy flushed and the gods just looked at them then Poseidon and Athena. Who glared at each other and the grimaced slightly at the two.

All the gods and goddess had one thing on their mind "ARE THEY DATING?" Except Aphrodite who was smirking slightly before an idea popped up

"Best OTP since Helen and Paris!" She made it her goal now.

Annabeth coughed and continued with the story

 **My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

"Like right now," Jason coughed quite loudly and Percy and Annabeth blushed more

 **Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

 **I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

 **"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

 **"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"GOD?" Everyone asked looking at Percy,

 **"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

 **"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"The good times" Zeus sighed,

"Not for us, you don't know what's it's like to be regurgitated out of your own father." Hera shuddered.

"Along with a rock" Poseidon pointed out

 **"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

 **"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

 **Some snickers from the group.**

 **Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

 **"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted," Grover muttered.

 **"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Ha same out Grover!" Percy laughed

"Shut up," Grover mumbled

 **"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

Grover turned red and Percy started laughing.

"That's golden!" Percy wiped his fake tears

 **At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

 **I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

 **"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"I love how he just fits 10 years of war into a short paragraph. " Hades mumbled

"Or the fact that Zeus feed HIM a misture of mustard and WINE." Annabeth pointed out. "Where did you even get wine?"

"Yeah Hera wasn't there to kill Mr. D's mom and Zeus has yet to stuff Mr D in his thigh" Poseidon added.

 **The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Boy are idiots," Artemis told everyone, Athena nodded a bit.

 **Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

 **I knew that was coming.**

 **I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

 **Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"You're not far from it." Rachel said for the first time.

 **"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

 **"About the Titans?"**

 **"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

 **"Oh."**

 **"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

 **I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"And you'll soon know why," Leo said darkly or at least tried.

 **I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

Grover choked and looked at Percy, "He did that?" Percy nodded. "I'll never look at Chiron the same."

 **I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

 **He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

 **The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

 **Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"What happened?" Zeus asked confused why he would do all these things.

"Something," Percy told them everyone nodded.

 **Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

 **Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

 **"Detention?" Grover asked.**

 **"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

 **Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

 **I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

 **I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

 **Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"That's awesome! I wonder if i could do that for Festus," Leo exclaimed

 **I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

 **"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

 **I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

 **I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

 **Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

 **Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

 **"—the water—"**

 **"—like it grabbed her—"**

 **I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"No doubt," Jason sniggered

 **As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

 **"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

 **That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Yeah that's rule... let me remember," Hermes said.

"There's a rulebook?" Artemis asked

"Yeah! I think it was Rule 18 or 19, Never guess your punishment," Apollo piped up.

 **"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

 **"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

 **I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

 **She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

 **"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

 **"But—"**

 **"You—will—stay—here."**

 **Grover looked at me desperately.**

 **"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

 **"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

 **Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

 **I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

 **How'd she get there so fast?**

"You'll soon know..." Leo said trying to sound like Nico basically darkly.

 **I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"That counselor sucked" Grover remembered

 **I wasn't so sure.**

 **I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

 **Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

Poor Percy

 **I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

 **Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

 **But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

Someone snorted

 **I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

 **Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Of course," Nico mumbled

 **Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

 **Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

 **"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

 **I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

 **She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?" Zeus asked, no one really answered and for one he was angry he was more interested in the story.

 **The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

 **She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Wrong Again Seaweed Brain," Annabeth put the book down, "Okay someone else read, my throat is dry, she threw it to Nico.

"Umm okay," He read on, he stopped quite a bit more often not spacing out his breaths

 **I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

 **Thunder shook the building.**

"Hey why am I angry?" Zeus asked getting bored of the book. when no one answered he looked at a random demigod in this case it was Hazel "Answer... Please?"

Hazel and the other demigods looked dumbfounded, so did the gods Zeus barely said please. "Um someone stole something Important of yours?" Hazel told them nervously

Athena thought of the book title and Gasped "The Master Bolt?"

Zeus Gripped the bolt tighter as no one answered, the gods took it as a yes. All the gods griped their symbol of importance the thing that represents them. Hera, gripped her lucky peacock feather from her mom, Poseidon his trident , Hades his helm, Demeter her wreath of grain, Hestia looked up and gave a small sad smile.

"Don't worry it turns out right at the end!" Percy added quickly, everyone gave small smiles of relief

 **"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

 **I didn't know what she was talking about.**

 **All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Percy how dare you!" Annabeth looked at him he shrugged and looked small as Athena glared at him, less sure if they were even dating.

 **"Well?" she demanded.**

 **"Ma'am, I don't..."**

 **"Your time is up," she hissed.**

 **Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"Everyone looked at Hades who shrugged.

 **Then things got even stranger.**

 **Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

 **"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"Stop!" Grover said before laughing, "Chiron said that?" he looked at Percy he nodded and he grinned "Sorry i had to ask."

 **Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

 **With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

 **Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

 **My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

 **She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"I love how she says DIE, HONEY!" Leo laughed

Nico glared at Leo tired of getting interrupted, he sighed and started again

 **And she flew straight at me.**

 **Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

 **The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

 **Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

 **I was alone.**

"Dun Dun DUN!" Leo chanted quietly

 **There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

 **Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

 **My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

 **Had I imagined the whole thing?**

 **I went back outside.**

 **It had started to rain.**

 **Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Leo asked quietly slightly louder than before, Nico ignored him and continued

 **I said, "Who?"**

 **"Our teacher. Duh!"**

 **I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

 **She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

 **I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

 **He said, "Who?"**

 **But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

 **"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

 **Thunder boomed overhead.**

"Gods Uncle you're so dramatic in this book," Percy mumble Zeus looked up, he like being dramatic it made him seem important maybe he should cut it down a bit.

 **I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

 **I went over to him.**

 **He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

 **I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

 **"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

 **He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

 **"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

 **He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

Nico Let out a sigh.

 **2\. THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

Nico Placed the book down and tossed it to a random person in this case Percy.

"Awesome listing to a book by the person whos perceptives in the book," Apollo smile, but frowned when everyone looked at him blankly. too confusing?

 **I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

 **Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

 **It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

 **Almost.**

 **But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Yeah Grover you are a bad Liar," Annabeth nodded

 **Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

 **I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Really?" Hades looked up, "I didn't think said 'Mrs. Dodds' was scary."

"No she's not to you, she's your subject!" Percy mumber quietly. He turned the page.

 **The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the HudsonValley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

 **I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Really Percy?" Annabeth looked at Percy disappointed,, so did Athena.

 **Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Percy glaced at Annabeth to make sure she would say anything.

 **The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to YancyAcademy.**

 **Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

 **I was homesick.**

"Sallly was the best!" Poseidon said dreamily

 **I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

 **And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Good thing I didn't have to," Grover added.

 **I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

 **As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

 **The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

Annabeth snorted "That's easy stuff I could do it when I was seven," Athena nodded

"No one is a genius like you or your sibling expect your mom," Calypso mildly pointed out.

 **I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

 **I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

"Geez that's slightly creepy." Leo whispered quietly

 **I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

 **I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

 **I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

 **I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

 **I froze.**

 **I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

" Twelve year old Percy is right, it's hard," Nico added

 **I inched closer.**

 **"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

"You know I never understood why you called Mrs. Dodds a Kindly One," Percy pointed out.

"Didn't I explain it to you already?" Annabeth mentioned

 **"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

Percy paused "Hey how do I 'Mature' more?" No one answered

 **"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— "**

 **"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

 **"Sir, he saw her... ."**

 **"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

 **"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

 **"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

 **The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

 **Mr. Brunner went silent.**

Percy stopped "Can I read this really fast?" since there were a few shakes anf more nods he read slightly faster, and there was barely interruptions

 **My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

 **A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

 **I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

 _Gasp_ Percy took a breath

 **A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

 **A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

 **Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

 **"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

 **"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

 **"Don't remind me."**

 **The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

 **I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

 **Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

 **Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

 **"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

 **I didn't answer.**

 **"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

 **"Just... tired."**

 **I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

 **I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

 **But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

 **The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

Annabeth shivered at at the names

 **For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

 **"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

 **His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

 **I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

 **"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

 **My eyes stung.**

 **Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

 **"Right," I said, trembling.**

 **"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

 **"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

 **"Percy—"**

 **But I was already gone.**

 **On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

 **The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

Percy sighed and gave a small smile.

 **They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

 **What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

 **"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

 **They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

 **The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

 **During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

 **Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

 **I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

 **Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

 **I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

 **Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

 **"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

 **He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

 **"Grover—"**

 **"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

 **"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"It's so true too," Annabeth added

 **His ears turned pink.**

 **From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

 **The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why did you use fancy script for the card?" Percy looked up and asked Mr. D

He shrugged "It's amusing to see demigods read it."

 **but I finally made out something like:**

 **Grover Underwood**

 **Keeper**

 **Half-Blood Hill**

 **Long Island, New York**

 **(800) 009-0009**

 **"What's Half—"**

 **"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

 **My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

 **"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

 **He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

 **"Why would I need you?"**

 **It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"No doubt," Jason muttered, everyone looked at Grover who was chewing on a can he pulled from his pocket.

 **Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

 **I stared at him.**

 **All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

 **"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

 **There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

 **After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

 **We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

 **The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Zeus coughed "Three old ladies?" He said nervously

 **I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

 **All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

 **The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Uh oh," Hades said

"Indeed," Poseidon agreed

 **I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

 **"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

 **"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

 **"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny Percy. NOT funny at all," Leo said

 **"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

Leo blushed slighty but no one said anything as Percy read out more.

 **The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

At this moment everyone was holding their breaths

 **"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

 **"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

 **"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

 **Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

Everyone took a deep breath.

 **Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

 **At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

 **The passengers cheered.**

 **"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

 **Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

 **Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

 **"Grover?"**

 **"Yeah?"**

 **"What are you not telling me?"**

 **He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

 **"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

 **His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

 **"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

 **He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

 **He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

 **"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

Everyone nodded. at this point Percy was getting tired of talk but he check the page and saw he had a few more pages to go.

 **"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

 **"What last time?"**

 **"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

 **"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

 **"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

 **This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

 **"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

 **No answer.**

 **"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

 **He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"I kinda was.." Grover admitted. Everyone turned to Percy who stood up and cracked his back, he walked over to Hestia and placed the book next to her.

"Break?" Percy asked after Zeus nodded he asked something else. "Can we up stay her for the night since we can't go to camp?" Apparently the gods in ten years are a bit more laid back.

Zeus sighed "On your right down that hall way the third door on your left it stood say guest" He stood up, the gods following. "We will come back after dinner to continue the story. Hestia Sister would you like to read" He asked her his face softening as he addressed her. She nodded and the gods save Hestia flashed and disappeared.

"Lets go get ICE CREAM and explore Olympus before Annabeth remodeled it!" Leo yelled and they ran to the market place to get Ice cream.

-This is a line break since I don't know how to make one-

The gods and goddess on the other hand were arguing.

"My daughter shall not date your spawn!" Athena Yelled

"HOW DO WE KNOW IF THEY'RE EVEN DATING!?" Poseidon yelled

"This is going to be the best couple ever!" Aphrodite squeled while thinking "make their love life hard then pair them up!"

"Brother, calm down." Hades asked him, Poseidon begrudgingly calmed down. "Now Poseidon is right we don't know if their dating." Poseidon slyly stuck his tongue out with out Athena seeing. Hades became the peace keeper since Hestia wasn't there at the moment.

"How about we make a bet?" Hermes asked eager to win.

After arguing about a price it came to an immortal favor from each gods. So if three people win, each god had to give a faver to each of them.

"Who chooses couple?" Hades asked. Hades, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Artemis raised their hand after Apollo gave a trust me look. "Who think their not going to be a couple?" Zeus, Demeter, Mr. D, Ares, raised their hands. Hephaestus, Athena, Poseidon reframed from raising their hands

"We choose to stand aside," Athena carefully answered. Hephaestus continued working quietly.

Everyone flashed away except Artemis, Apollo and Aphrodite.

"Okay why did you want me to choose the couple side?" She shivered slightly

Apollo patted her on the back "God of prophecy remember sis? just a feeling plus Aphrodite's on our side." Hermes started thinking about drugging the demigods to find out the truth, but stopped after Athena gave him a glare.

 **Okay guys this is the end of the first Chapter. Ta da! there are parts I'm not sure I like but I'll deal with it.**

 **Date: This is the date that was published. Word: 9,436 words not counting author's note.**

 **Except updates every few weeks of months unless I get really behind in school. :)**


	2. Book 1 Chapter 2

_Hello, right now I have to write in this front as the story is write now in bold. Thanks for what ever support you guys gave me. It takes me ages to write these things, Plus i have to write each and every sentence from the book so shuss up and let me do what ever._

 _THe chapter is a bit rushed, sorry. Guys I realized I could go to a website and copy and paste the story the the chapter. I wrote 9,000 words and I could just copy and paste half of the story in twenty minutes._

 _If you haven't guessed I don't own the PJO books that's for a man that's over twice my ages, and the opposite gender sooo._

\- 'N'

 _RECAP:_

 _The Demigods came, ten years too early, for some reason. Read two chapters of the book, and oh yeah the gods made a bet on whether or not Percy and Annabeth were dating/married/a couple._

 _Recap Finished._

Everyone came back after dinner where majority of the gods came the the demigod's palace and they talked about future movies and books. Mean while...

The throne room was completely empty until some being decided to take more demigods back in time.

Eight flashes of light appeared suddenly in the throne room each with a demigod stepping out of the flash.

This time Datoka, Gwen, Clarisse, Chris, Connor, Travis, Katie, Lou Ellen, and Will.

Clarisse was swinging down with her spear, hittig nothing but the marble floor, while Chris was on the opposite end just holding up his sword as to defend him self, from nothing. Connor, and Travis were running away from Katie when they flashed in. Katie was completely covered in sprinkles. Will and Lou Ellen were arguing. (William Lou Ellen Solace, If you don't tell me- "My name is not William Lou Ellen Solace!") And Datoka was sipping on a cup of kool aid.

For a moment everyone looked at each other, and no one spoke until Clarisse broke the silence

"What the Hades are we doing here?!" Clarisse yelled throwing down her spear. "I was just about to beat Chris that was the good part" Chris went over and patted her shoulder calming her down.

While Clarisse was yelling, Will was just staring at the throne room.

"Olympus never looked like this since Annabeth remodel, what happened?" Will looked around. Everyone stopped and looked at the throne room, there was a series of nods.

"Okay let's find the gods." Everyone just started walking around the throne room, no one really got angry at the roman and the Roman didn't get angry at the Greeks.

The demigods stared walking around yelled random things until Will yelled.

"ZEUSIE!? ZEUSIE POO!" Soon enough Zeus flashed in.

"Who said that?" He looked at the demigods, his eyes widen. "there's more? Stay there!" He flashed away and came back with the demigods and the gods.

"GUYS!" Percy yelled and ran over and hug all of them, even if he didn't know Datoka too well.

"WHERE HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN? YOU JUST DISAPPEAR DURING LUNCH AND NOW WE DISAPPEAR A SECOND LATER!" Travis and Connor yelled,

The demigods all looked at Annabeth to explain. "We are in the past, ten years ago exactly." All their jaws dropped as She explained the rest of the story. "Basically this N person want us to read a story about Percy and the lightning thief. Now you guys have to introduce each other."

Before anyone introduced them selves there was a small arguement ("How likely is this true?" "Annabeth show her the paper with 'N' writing." So this isn't a pratical joke?" "Yeah" etc)

Clarisse finally stepped forward. "I am Clarisse La Rue, senior counselor of the Ares Cabin." She grunted as she motioned Chris to step forward with her.

Chris stepped forward "My name is Chris Rodrigues. Senior Counselor of the Hermes Cabin with my brother- "

Travis and Connor interrupted " Connor,"

"and Travis STOLL"

Katie stepped forward "I'm Katie Gardener, daughter of Demeter." Demeter beamed at her daughter.

"I'm Lou Ellen, Senior Counselor of the Hecate Cabin"

"Will Solace " He gestured to himself. "Senior Counselor of the Apollo Cabin, Boyfriend to Nico!" He walked away as Apollo started cheering

"That's my son! Dating NICO!" Apollo cheered "Who ever this guy it!"

Finally a Roman boy stood up straighter "I am Dakota, son of Bacchus. No I mean umm Roman Mr. D? Is that right?" He back pedaled as the gods shifted between their roman and greek aspects. "WHY AM I EVEN HERE?"

"Gwen, daughter of Roman um Demeter?" Demeter smiled at her.

Zeus stood up "Alright now lets get back to the story!" He said like an excited child "Hestia do you want to read?" She nodded and opened the book looking for chapter 3.

 **3\. GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**

 **Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Percy! That's rude!" Piper said. Percy shrugged

 **I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

 **Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

"I didn't go to the washroom!" Grover argued "I went to talk to Chiron!"

 **Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

 **"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

 **A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"Percy's probably going to explain Sally," Annabeth predicted

 **Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"Annabeth is right again" Rachel motioned for Hestia to continue

 **The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Poseidon silently raised his arms in the air in a cheering fashion, but he didn't say anything.

 **I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

"Because he's a god!" Percy pipped, Annabeth elbowed him slightly.

 **See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

"Nice excuse, " Grover mumbled who was snacking on a new can.

 **Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Aww twelve year Percy somehow knew his Dad was alive." Aphrodite cheered.

 **She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"No doubt." Athena sneered slightly.

 **Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Poseidon growled.

 **Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

 **I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

 **Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

 **"Where's my mom?"**

 **"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

Poseidon growled again slightly louded, and Artemis gripped her arm rests of her throne tightly.

 **That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

 **Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"EWW!" Aphrodite shrieked. Hestia Grimaced as she read out loud the next part.

 **He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"THAT MOTHER-EFFING A**HOLE!" Poseidon yelled/ growled

"Calm down brother you sound like a wolf with all the growling" Hestia told him "Can someone else read this chapter I'm fine reading but not this Gabe person. Artemis volunteered, her eyes darken as she read ahead, and she mostly growled the story. Everyone could hear how disgusted she was with the male.

 **"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

 **He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

 **Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

 **"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

 **Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"Eddie was okay, he and my mom were friends before Gabe came and messed everything up." Percy mentioned.

 **"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

 **Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Dis," "Gust" Thing" Aphrodite said slowly.

 **"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"Us too Percy, us too" Nico, Thalia and Leo spoke in unison

 **"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

 **I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

Now several gods growled, the loudest Artemis, Poseidon, Aphrodite and Hera. Artemis it's pretty obvious she hates males like him, Aphrodite hates the fact that he is disgusting, Poseidon because for Sally, and Hera because one he reminded her of Zeus without the ugly-ness. Zeus was better and Gabe was WAY WORSE at least. And she feels sorry for Sally.

 **I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

 **Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

 **But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

 **Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

Poseidon grinned

 **She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

 **My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"That's Sally alright," Poseidon smiled forgetting Gabe

 **"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

 **Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Lucky!" Conner, Travis, and Leo all yelled.

 **We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

 **I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

Someone cooed.

 **From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

The gods growled again quietly.

 **I gritted my teeth.**

 **My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"It's so true." Poseidon cried.

 **For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at YancyAcademy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked YancyAcademy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

"Ha yeah right," Grover mumble

 **Until that trip to the museum ...**

 **"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

 **"No, Mom."**

 **I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"No it isn't"

 **She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

 **"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

Poseidon cheered

 **My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

 **"Three nights—same cabin."**

"Yeah!" Poseidon cheered again

 **"When?"**

 **She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

 **I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

 **Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

Poseidon growled again.

"Poseidon calm down with all your mood swings you're like a teenager again!" Aphrodite cried out.

 **I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

 **"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

 **Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

 **"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

 _-Insert growls here-_

 **"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"That Seven layer dip is heaven!" Percy yelled.

 **Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"What?!" Aphrodite shrieked "HER CLOTHES BUDGET? Why would you have a clothes budget?" Aphrodite stood up.

"I'm going to gut him!" Poseidon stood up too.

"Count me in," Artemis jumped up too throwing her book down.

"That male is going to regret it!" The Three of them flashed away before anyone could say any thing.

"Well then, Hephaestus can you please turn on the Hephaestus Channel?" Zeus mildly asked as Hestia placed the book down.

Hera frowned. "Aww I wanted to go with them and I finally thought I found a use for these nails. " She showed everyone extremely long and sharp nails. "Never mind I'm still going." She flashed off.

A large TV flashed in a flat screen which was extremely expensive. It static ed for a while before showing Gabe.

 _Ba ba ba ba!_

Gabe was on the couch eating a large Pizza, alone. At this time he had a lot more hair like the top part of his head was the only spot without hair.

"Bye Gabe we'll be back in about two hours!" Sally yelled as she led seven year old Adorable Percy out the door. People cooed as they saw this cute Percy. "Hurry back Woman and bring some bean dip!" Gabe yelled going through the channels.

Poseidon, Artemis, and Aphrodite flashed in.

Gabe grabbed the kitchen knife and held it towards them. "GET OUT OF ME HOUSE!" Gabe yelled holding a kitchen knife.

"You're going to get it!" Artemis waved her have and he turned into a jackal-ope "Let's Torture it!" Aphrodite yelled.

She grabbed Animal Gabe by the ear and took him to a bucket of salt water Poseidon got. "Let's dye him Pink!" Then she waved her hand and the water diappeared to pink dye. Animal Gabe shaked back and front to get out.

Artemis dunked him in and out of the bucket barely giving him room to breathe. "Let him be awake you he can feel the pain!"

Hera flashed in different clothes but, the clothes were more like Artemis'. "Count me in this torture!" She waved her hand the the pink dye darkened "A bit of mortal poison since the weaking can't handle the other stuff. "

An hour Later Animal Gabe was an ugly brown Pink from the dye, and his filth. They turned him back to human and started kicking him and jabbing him.

Artemis, Aphrodite took turns kicking him in the crouch. Then Poseidon slammed him to the wall with his Tridon and kicking him in the balls.

"You are a disgusting MALE!" Artemis yelled.

"I'm going to kill you!" Gabe yelled back at her before she slammed her hand at his throat.

"You're not going anywhere." Aphrodite screamed kicking him in the nuts for a good measure.

Poseidon held Gabe at the point of his trident and Hera showed him her nails "I'm wanted to tear your eyes out since I can't do that you manhood has to feel the pain." Gabe started struggling "Or I could get a taser?"

All the male on Olympus covered their manhood.

They left Gabe on the ground after he fainted. Poseidon waved his hand and everything went back to normal except Gabe. Poseidon Walked over to Percy's bedroom and saw his Piggy back under his bed that No one knew about except Percy, he dumped a good 100 bucks worth of coins, went over to Sally's collage funds she had been working on and added a good 100 buck in bills and coins.

Poseidon begrudging called 911. And they left.

They gods flashed back and watched as Gabe went to the hospital and the people there checked his money, and saved his collapsing lungs.

Gabe woke up with Sally looking at him worryingly. Did a monster come? Percy on the other hand held a bag of Bean dip and was eating blue cookies. Until Poseidon clapped his hands, scaring people in the throne room and a note fell on Percy's lap

 _Sorry Sally,_

 _Paid for the hospital funds,_

 _Gabe can't smoke now as well as a bunch of other things by the way_

 _Gabe's not going to return for another month at least._

 _-P_

He ran in waving the note at Sally until she took it. Her eyes widened as she read the note and smiled at Percy.

"Come on big guy Gabe's not going to be home for the next month." She led him away and they went home.

Gabe watched as Sally left and a doctor came in "Ah Gabe right, it seems like your left lung has almost completely fail and your right lung is beating twice as fast as a result you can't run, or exercise. But you can still go to work as you need to pay off the hospital funds." A smaller flash went off "Never mind it seems Sally has payed them off"

He frown "It also say here you smoke and have a small eating diso0rder. So no smoking and lay off the dips and fast food for the rest of the of this year. (It's January)" Gabe's eyes got big

"What?"

"Yes lay off the dip and fast food for twelve months" He flipped the next page of his clipboard "Ahh It also seems like the dye in your hair is speeding up the baldening process?

Gabe nodded and and tried to sit up with groaning

"Wait it also seems like you broke two ribs, you can never have kids, a broken collar bone, twisted your right arm and broke your right leg in two different spots. It also says, it's going to hurt when you go to the washroom... or the bedroom, not like it mattered anyway." The doctor mumble the last part quietly.

The gods laughed on Olympus, at the bedroom part, and Aphrodite groan ed at the bald part. "I'm the reason he's going bald!?" Hera shook her head "My poison,"

Everyone started laughing and Artemis Picked up the book again.

 **"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

 **"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

 **"We'll be very careful."**

 **Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"I'll rather watch Poseidon kick Gabe in the balls." Percy mumbled as the others nodded.

 **Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Ares's and Clarisse's eyes widen"Do it!" they both yelled. More people yelled it but the loudest were Ares and Clarisse.

 **But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

 **Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

 **"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

"Wow Prissy those words were dripping with sarcasm," Clarisse said.

 **Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

 **"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

 **He went back to his game.**

 **"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

 **For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

 **But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

 **An hour later we were ready to leave.**

 **Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

 **"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like Percy would be the one driving," Grover mumbled

 **Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.** Someone snorted

 **But** **that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

 **Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe.**

"Ha," Clarisse crackled "That's rough,"

 **The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

"I'll would have loved to see that," Will mumbled, several people nodded.

 **Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

 **I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

 **Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

 **I loved the place.**

"Me too." Poseidon muttered quietly.

 **We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Aphrodited cooed "Aww that's sweet."

 **As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

Everyone looked at Poseidon who shifted in his seat.

"What?" Percy looked at Poseidon for an explanation.

"I may have um blessed her?" Poseidon asked sinking slowly in his seat. He sent a pleading look at Artemis to start reading, but she ignore him.

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"Look all gods/goddesses bless our lovers to some degree, in Artemis' case her hunters. I just blessed her more than most." Poseidon gave them an odd explanation. Artemis finally started reading again.

 **We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

 **I guess I should explain the blue food.**

 **See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

Percy sighed happily. "Can you imagine Sally Ugliano? Ha"

 **When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"I wish she would write a book," Thalia told everyone "I mean she probably has a ton of dirt on Percy, we could use for blackmail." Thalia add nonchalantly. Percy pouted, and Thalia smile as she patted his head.

 **Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

 **"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Poseidon puffed out his chest and grinned. Percy did the same thing before Annabeth and Thalia patted his head.

 **Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

 **I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"Wait what?" Athena looked at Percy, "Only Six years? Damn it I thought he got kick out of at least ten schools."

 **"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

 **She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

 **"But... he knew me as a baby."**

 **"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

"Every god has to, the goddess have to give birth to the kid, give it to the dad then leaves." Hera pointed out.

 **I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.** ("hehe" Poseidon smiled)

 **I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...**

 **I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

 **"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

 **She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

 **"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

 **"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

 **My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

"To camp half blood!" Travis and Connor yelled high fiving themselves before getting smack by Katie

"You ruined the moment" She scowled

 **Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

 **"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

 **"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

 **"Safe from what?"**

 **She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

"Wait" Percy asked. EVeryone stopped as Percy pulled a bag from his pocket and unwrapped it to show everyone the blue cookies. "Take one," Immediately the demigods and Poseidon took one and started moaning on how good they were. Soon everyone had one in their hand.

"Um," Zeus looked surprisingly conflicted at the cookie. 'How should I eat this?' Zeus finally took a bite "Ahh!" He moaned quietly, "That's one good cookie," He nudged Hera to try it.

"Oh man That's amazing," Now everyone was happily munching on a cookie, Artemis started reading again, her voice slightly muffled by the cookie.

 **During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

 **Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

 **In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

 **I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"Mistake," Grover muttered.

 **"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

 **"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

 **"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

 **My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

 **"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

Percy started to tear up a bit, it was such a sentimental moment.

 **"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

 **She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

 **That night I had a vivid dream.**

"Dun dun dun!" Leo quietly chanted.

 **It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

 **I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

 **I woke with a start.**

"So the Horse was Poseidon and I was the Eagle?" Zeus asked, the demigods nodded.

 **Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

 **With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

 **I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

"Geez Poseidon you had a bad day."

 **Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

 **My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

 **Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"No he's was a goat!" Leo yelled.

 **"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

 **My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

 **"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

 **I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

 **"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

 **I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

"He was pantless!" Leo guessed "In a thong? " Piper smacked him at the last guess.

 **My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

 **I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

 **She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

 **Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

 **Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Nice discription of the hooves." Grover mentioned as he gestured to his hooves

"Aw," Leo whined "I really though he was on a thong.." Grover glared at Leo while he turned a peach pink.

 **4\. MY MOTHER TEACHES ME BULLFIGHTING**

Clarisse snorted "What type of title is that?"

 **We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

 **Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

 **All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

 **Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"Stalker Alert!" Leo mouthed to Travis and Connor who in turned snickered.

 **"Watching me?"**

 **"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

 **"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"**

 **"That doesn't matter right now."**

 **"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

 **Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

"Blaa-ha-ha" Leo tried copying Grover, but he ended up hiccuping.

"I'm starting to wonder why I kissed you," Calypso faced palmed as the girls patted her on the back.

"It's okay you'll get used to it soon." Piper told her reassuringly

 **I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

 **"Goat!" he cried.**

 **"What?"**

 **"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

 **"You just said it didn't matter."**

 **"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

Percy held his hand in the air with the thumb and pointer finger touching at the top. "Love the insult too Grover."

 **"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

 **"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

 **"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

 **"Of course."**

 **"Then why—"**

 **"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

 **"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

 **The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

 **"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

 **"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

"Nothing but every thing and person after you wanted for something you didn't do." Grover said.

The other demigods nodded

"We could make a list." Annabeth commented

"Yeah so true," Nico nodded. "Annabeth you start,"

"Alphabetically or in chronologically order?" Annabeth asked Percy who shrugged, she pulled out a large book with the title ' _Enemies of Perseus Jackson'_

"Okay first is apparently when you were a few years old when basically someone sent a package that said puppy. Of course your mom wasn't there so your three and half year old brain said lets open it. Surprise it was a baby Hellhound at jumped at you. Your mom came up with a limp Hellhound and you playing nurse with it," Annabeth snickered

"How do you know this?"

"Your mom, now apparently you were so happy that you hugged it and after your mom took the Hellhound away, Next was about two years later..." Annabeth continued

"Okay stop just past me the book," Annabeth pasted him the book at he quickly looked over it. It was in tiny writing and all in Greek. "Hmm Age 17: 12 Hellhound, two cyclops, 17 out of control Centaurs on July 10..."

Percy looked up to see the gods and demigods all laying down with the same book Percy had. Percy then saw Zeus looking bored before waving his hand and the same book popping up in his hand. "How did you guys Keep track of all the monster?"

Annabeth shrugged "Look at the author." Percy looked it said _by Annabeth Chase and Isis, Goddess of Rainbows and other things._

"Well let us continue," Artemis tossed the book to one of the thrones next to her, Athena.

 **"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

 **"Grover!"**

 **"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

 **I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

 **My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

 **"Where are we going?" I asked.**

 **"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

 **"The place you didn't want me to go."**

 **"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

 **"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"Those aren't Old ladies," Hades said gravely, the other gods nodded as well.

"But when you put it like that it doesn't seem so bad." Piper added

 **"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

 **"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

 **"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

 **"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

 **"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

"Confusing," Katie mentioned

 **"Boys!" my mom said.**

 **She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

 **"What was that?" I asked.**

 **"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

 **I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

 **Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

 **Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

 **I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

"Ahh it seems like Zeus finally decided to use his bolt." Mr. D sipped on his Diet Coke that Hebe just gave to him. "Thank you," Hebe gave a nod and walked over and offered the other gods a drink.

"He had his reason!" Percy remind his father as he glared at Zeus.

 **I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

 **"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

 **"I'm okay... ."**

 **I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

 **Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

 **He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

 **Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

"Does he always say 'food'?" Reyna asked amused "Satyrs are definitely not like our fauns." She said with Sarcasm

 **"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

 **I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"No Percy it actually are horns," Grover mumbled

 **I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

 **"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

 **My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

 **"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"Hey I'm not THAT big!" Thalia complained

"She meant your tree." Percy explained

"Oh,"

 **"What?"**

 **Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Yeah My tree is awesome." Thalia had both hands on her hips as she told no one in particular

 **"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

 **"Mom, you're coming too."**

 **Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

 **"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

 **"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

 **The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...**

"They are horns right?" Percy asked.

"Yes Percy, we already told you," Grover reminded

 **"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

 **"But..."**

 **"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

 **I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

 **I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

 **"I told you—"**

 **"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

 **I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

 **Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

 **Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

"Underwear?" Nico asked "Like he was like oh I miss placed all my clothes except my underwear but I just want to kill Percy soo bad that I left without the clothes." Nico said in a higher, squeaky-ier voice.

 **His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

"Really that what you think while in that situation?" Clarisse grunted

 **I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

 **I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

 **"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

 **"But he's the Min—"**

 **"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

The demigods all nodded their heads.

 **The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

 **I glanced behind me again.**

 **The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"Nuzzling?" Percy asked the book.

 **"Food?" Grover moaned.**

"Geez Grover Be quiet!" Annabeth told him.

"Um..?" Grover looked at Annabeth who just told book Grover to be quiet.

 **"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

 **"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

 **As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

 **Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

 **Oops.**

"Oops," Rachel laughed "Typical Percy,"

 **"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

 **"How do you know all this?"**

 **"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"Naw you were the best mom in the world!" Percy correct

 **"Keeping me near you? But—"**

 **Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

 **He'd smelled us.**

"Yeah I must have smelled horrible at that time," Percy scatched his neck

 **The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

 **The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

 **My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

 **I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

"Yeah he really did," Grover baa-ed more like a sheep than a goat.

 **He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

 **The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

 **The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

 **We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

 **The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

 **"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

 **But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

 **"Mom!"**

 **She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

 **Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

Poseidon and Percy silently weeped at that part, Athena stopped reading, had a few tears in her eyes. Annabeth and the demigods went to comfort Percy and Hestia and Hera went to comfort Poseidon dispist the fact he broke his vow on Styx.

 **"No!"**

 **Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

 **The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

 **I couldn't allow that.**

 **I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

"Percy you idiot," Annabeth mumbled rubbing her forehead.

 **"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

Hermes snorted

 **"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

 **I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

"That's MY TREE you know!" Thalia shouted at Percy, you could see electricity running on her arms

"Sorry! I didn't know it was you!" Percy tried to make up for it, he then jumped and hid behind Grover

"Percy what have you done!" Grover got up quickly, jumped and sat on the opposite end of Percy leaving him in the open from Thalia. Thalia gave him a big shock on the butt and Percy jumped a few feet in the air.

"Ahh!" Thalia then sat down and motioned for Athena to continue

"Okay where was I, ah **But it didn't happen like that..."**

Someone snorted

 **The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

 **Time slowed down.**

 **My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

 **How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

Thalia glared at Percy, how looked away and hid behind Annabeth, who then got up and sat near Thalia. Thalia had a victorious grin on.

 **The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

 **The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

 **Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

 **"Food!" Grover moaned.**

"Yeah you're right I really should stop groaning food all the time," Grover mentioned

 **The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

 **The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

 **The monster charged.**

 **Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

 **The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

 **The monster was gone.**

 **The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

Percy sniffled at the words crying for my mother.

 **The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"Aphrodite's child." The gods all agreed, Poseidon, Athena and Hestia noticed that Athena's child and Poseidon's child blushed. The demigods were laughing quietly.

Athena looked down reading ahead before scowling

 **They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"CREEP ALERT!" Hermes yelled, and high fived Apollo who got smack my his sister.

"You're such a goof sometimes," Artemis mumbled.

 **"Silence, Annabeth,"**

All the gods looked at Annabeth who blushed more. Percy blushed more as well since he was sitting next to her.

 **the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

Athena put the book down. "Done," She yawned

"It's abo *Yawn* bout 10 now, why don't all go to bed?" Hera yawned as well

"Yeah," Zeus yawned as well... THEN EVERYONE YAWNED "You know where _(I yawned here...)_ You know where the guest suit is off you go" Zeus made a shooing motion and the gods disappeared. "

The demigods were left behind to walk to their rooms "Okay guys!" Thalia clapped her hands "This is a coo-ed place so Girl with girl and boys with boys NO EXCEPTIONS!" There were awws "Shut up you're hormonal teenagers and since I am forever single as a pingle plus I am the oldest and wisest I'm the boss."

Everyone shutted up after hormonal...

After the demigods chosed their room partner Leo whipped up some sandwiches, and they all went to bed.

 _ON THE GODS SIDE..._

Zeus appeared in a different room called the secret meeting room... _(Not so secret now...)_ the other gods flashed in.

"Okay what now?" Zeus asked

"duh we find out if Annie Bell and Perry are dating." Guess who said that?

"It's Percy," Poseidon corrected at the same time Athena said "It's Annabeth"

...

Until next time since I have a writer block

 **So yeah done. If you guys haven't figured it out I'm "N" So yeah. So It's been Ten days since the last time I finished.. I think..**

 **Also you notice I say So a lot. :) I'm also thinking of Shorter and more chapters so I can update more often. So what do you think? Also tell me if you have other HoO people you want to add in.**

 **Finally**

 **Words: 10,911 Date: Jan 18, 2017**

 **Until next time...**

 **Bye!**

 **So cheesey ending done I can go. :)**


	3. Book 1 Chapter 3

**Yo guys I'm back... and dying from school. Homework's too much sometimes and yeah... ONTO THE STORY...**

Annabeth and the others woke up in the morning. Annabeth of course immediately noticed that she wasn't in her normal bed and rolled off the bed, grabbing her dagger which was on her bedside table next to her, she landed in a crouched position. Her body tense until she saw Piper sleeping on the bed next to her, and realized that she was on Olympus. Her brained played around with a few ideas of why she was here until she remember that the demigods were back in the past.

"Really? She groaned quietly not to wake up Piper "I thought it was a dream," Annabeth got out of bed and grabbed random clothes of the closet, that Aphrodite made to have everyone's sizes and preferences.

She went and took a quick shower and came bad to Piper whom was now sitting cross legged with Hazel. Hazel had a small stuffed house that looked a lot like Arion. Who sweared a lot evidence by Percy.

Soon enough Rachel, Katie, Thalia, Calypso and even Reyna and Gwen came in. Reyna had a stuffed pegasus, that look like Scipio. Eventually they came up to the kitchen, with Percy try to make Blue pancakes and Jason, Frank, and Leo trying to clean up the messing. Somehow Percy is winning as Jason, Frank and Leo look tired. Grover, Chris, Clarisse, Connor, Travis, and even Datkota were to the side eatting cereal, and sandwhiches. Nico and Will were there talking to the side as well Then Leo snapped

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD..S!" Leo yelled "LET ME MAKE PANCAKES!"

"No!" Percy countered.

"Percy let Leo make the pancakes you have the batter, and Leo can cook them without burning Olympus." Annabeth told him pointing to the supposedly indestructible kitchen with had a hole. Where did the hole even come from?

Percy begrudgingly gave Leo the batter, and went to help Jason and Frank

Leo poured the batter in a condiment container and poured the batter onto the pan and made pancakes. He placed them on the table, and Jason, Frank, Leo and Percy started eating.

"Why do you guys get to eat this?" Percy muttered mouth full of pancakes.

"We cleaned after your mess." Frank answered stuffing a sasuage in his mouth. "Why does this remind me of Rudolph?"

"Cause you ate him in Alaska." Hazel reminded him as she got some egges out. "I'm making Omelettes!" She started cracking the eggs as Piper grabbed the pan that leo just used and washed. She slide the pan back on the stove after it was clean. Annabeth grabbed some _Olive_ Oil and poured some on the pan.

After Hazel poured the bowl of mix eggs. and grabbed a pair of chop sticks

"What?" She asked when the others looked at her. "Oh the chopsticks..." She didn't say anything else as she added cheese to the omelette and grabbed one side of the omelette with the chopstick and fold the omelette in half. She slid it on to the plate and started on the next omelette. This time she added a bunch of berries and gave that one to Piper. She made more for the girls. She made one for herself and sat down to eat.

Will and Nico appear later after diappearing earlier with a bag of McDonalds, Nico ate the fries and played with the toys that came with the meal as Will ate a McMuffin and blueberries Muffin.

Everyone finished their breakfast and left to get ready. They walked to the throne room where the gods were arguing.

"No we can't trick-" Athena yelled until she saw them "We disgusted this yesterday."

 _Flashback._

"How are we going to find out?" Zeus asked

"I know Truth or Dare!" Aphrodite yelled.

"WHat?" EVeryone looked at her.

"What, it was a good idea" She whinned.

"We can trick them," Mr. D said.

"How?" Demeter said accusingly worried for Katie and Gwen her roman form's daugter.

"Get them drunk," He said cooly with a glimces of excitement.

"NO!" Athena and Poseidon yelled at the same time.

"Fine we can-," Mr. D started

"Nope we'll do it in the morning." Zeus dicided "When you are all rested. This is the few moment where Zeus let down his gaurd enough to show he cared. Being a leader was hard on him, he had to escape sometimes, sadly that mostly ends up with a pregnant women and an angry Hera that he hurted to much. The last few decades was hard on him after he had no way to escape all his stress. **(Had to have a Zeus moment here guys)**

 _End of Flashback_

"Fine Let's get reading the book." Athena grumbled as she pasted it over to Hades. He grumbled too before reading

 **5\. I PLAY PINOCHLE WITH A HORSE**

A bit of Awkward silence there.

 **I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"What?" Nico and everyone else looked at Percy "What is going on in your brain sometimes."

 **I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me,**

Annabeth blushed

 **smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

Annabeth's face flushed and everyone snickered at Percy.

 **When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

"I forgot how straight to the point you are.

 **I managed to croak, "What?"**

 **She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

 **"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

 **Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

Artemis let out a laugh suddenly making some of the demigods and the gods jump. She quickly clamp her mouth with her hand, and looked at the ground.

"I don't remember doing that!" Annabeth argued, everyone focused their attention on the Annabeth and Percy. Artemis let out a small sigh.

"Yeah you did!" Percy countered back

"Where's your evidence!" Annabeth retorted

"Duh! um," Percy suddenly looked a bit surprised at how the tabled turned

"See!" Annabeth started "You were half awake and brain dead at that moment! How could you possibly think I would just stuff your mouth with PUDDING OF ALL THINGS "

Hades started laughing then Hermes and Apollo started as well.

Annabeth turned and Glared at Hades, dispite him being able to kill her in a snap. He rolled his eyes and started reading.

 **The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

 **A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me.**

"Husky Where did that come from," Connor asked high-fiving his brother for no apparent reason.

 **He had blue eyes— at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

The Demigods bursted out laughing.

"Oh dear Percy if that's what you use to describe- ha Husky haha," Grover was hugging his stomach

 **When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

 **On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

 **My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

 **"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

 **Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMPHALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

Travis and Connor snickered, at the name Goat Boy.

 **So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And ...**

Hades for some reason paused and read the next part slowly and emotionless.

 **"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

 **Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

Hades paused again

 **Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

 **"The Minotaur," I said.** Instead of Hades saying the name he said. "The Mino- The half bull man, creature"

 **"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea—"**

 **"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."** Again Hades said half bull man creature.

 **Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

 **"My mom. Is she really ..."**

 **He looked down.**

 **I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

 **My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

Everyone was quiet at this part. Annabeth and Thalia were tearing up a bit and Percy had to keep wiping his eyes off his cheek.

 **"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

 **He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

 **"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

 **Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

 **As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

 **Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

"WHAT?!" Grover grumbled at Percy who shrugged.

 **But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

 **I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.** Nope, probably Percy would have died if you joined the army, but pasted that...

 **Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit.**

 **I said, "It wasn't your fault.". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 **"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."**

 **"Did my mother ask you to protect me?". . .**

 **"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

 **"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

 **"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

 **I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

 **Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

 **"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

 **I nodded.**

 **"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

 **"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

 **His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

 **"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."**

 **He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

 **"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

Everyone laughed. "Everyone has this OMG face when they drink it for the first time." Athena mumbled and Poseidon looked at her.

"omg?" Hades snickered and started reading at a faster pace

 **"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."**

 **"What do you mean?"**

 **He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

 **The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

 **My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

 **As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

 **We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"Dang that's a good description," Nico added

 **Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding**

... Travis, Connor, Hermes, Apollo, and Thalia bursted out loud laughing. The other gods were barely holding back smiles. Looking back at Annabeth on the other hand had her mouth pressed into a thin line.

Haded continued

 **The blond-haired girl who'd fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

 **The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels— what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.**

"What!" Mr. D yelled in outrage "But it's true for the gambling part." He slipped on fizzy grape Kool-aid and sighed.

 **"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron... ."**

 **He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

 **First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

 **"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

 **The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

 **...** "Man I wish I got those tests," Travis and Connor crowed high-fiving their dad.

 **"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

 **He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to CampHalf-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

 **"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"Hey!" Grover let out his goat sound...

 **"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

 **She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

 **Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

 **She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking.**

"Yes whole lot more athletic looking than the great Percy Jackson!" Percy got smack by Thalia "The twelve year old Percy that had no idea what an exploding zombie was," He fixed but got smack by Thalia again

 **With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the** image. ("Ruined huh?") **They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

"Yeah.." Annabeth mumbled

 **She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.**

"Annabeth and Thalia snorted "when is she ever going to say that?!" She laughed

"Yeah You killed a mino... taur!" She said sarcastically.

 **Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

"What?" Zeus asked

Hades looked over again "You drool when you sleep.."

The brothers looked at Poseidon and back at each other "Totally his son."

 **Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

Travis and Connor mumbled something quietly to Hermes, something with looks like... someone ... a crush! (Looks like a certain someone has a crush on Percy!)"

 **"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?".**

 **"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex—Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

 **"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

 **Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly.** Instert snicker her **"Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

 **"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

 **"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

 **"House call?"**

 **"My year at YancyAcademy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

 **I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

 **"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"Don't get too big-headed, the world doesn't need another male like Heracules." Thalia crowed.

"What?" Zeus demanded

"Didn't you know?" Thalia said coolly "That Heracules tried to rape someone and didn't get the golden apples by himself?" Hera stood up.

"SEE! I told you there was somethine wrong but noo you just had to make that bastard (sorry) son of yours into a damn god!" Hera would have continued to talk but Hestia patted Hera on the shoulder and started to calm her down. She looked at Hades and he tossed her the book.

 **Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for CampHalf-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

 **"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

 **"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"What?" Mr. D grumbled.

 **"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

 **"I'm afraid not," I said.**

 **"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

 **"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

 **"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."**

 **"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

 **"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

 **Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

Mr. D snorted at that.

 **The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

 **Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.**

 **"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

 **"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

 **"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

 **"What?" I asked.**

 **He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

 **"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

 **"Orientation film?" I asked.**

"You know I never got to see that film! Can i see it!" Percy asked

"You're late by almost 8 years though." Mr. D frowned. He waved his hand and everyone watched the Orientation film.

"It wasn't as great as I thought it would be." Percy whinned "You need to make a better one you know?" The gods looked at him unsure to kill him or now (save Hestia, and Poseidon and Hades.)

 **"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"—he pointed to the horn in the shoe box—"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive."**

 **I stared at the others around the table.**

 **I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

 **"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

 **"Eh? Oh, all right."**

 **Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

 **"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."**

 **"Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

 **"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"**

 **"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

 **"Smaller?"**

"Smaller?" Zeus mumbled

 **"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

 **"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

 **And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloudless day.**

 **"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

 **"But they're stories," I said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"science!" Zeus scoffed. Hestia giggled in her seven year old form before continuing

 **"Science!" Mr. D scoffed.**

A god mostly like Hermes or Apollo hid a laugh behind a cough.

 **"And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody—"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

...

 **I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

 **"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

 **I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

 **"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

 **"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

"Dang That's rough," Will said quietly.

 **My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

 **"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

 **Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

 **"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

 **He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

 **My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

 **"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

 **Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

"Feigned surprise?" Zeus glared at his son.

 **"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

 **More thunder.**

 **Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

 **Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

 **"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

 **"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

 **Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

"Eh?" Frank asked sounding like a true Canadian _(An: Which I am)_

 **"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

 **"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

 **I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

 **"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

 **Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

 **"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

 **"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

Some people snickered

 **"You're a god."**

 **"Yes, child."**

 **"A god. You."**

Some of the demigods looked at the book in a don't push it manner.

 **He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

 **"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

 **"No. No, sir."**

 **The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

 **"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

 **I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

"I'll beat you on day" Mr. D mumbled.

 **"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

 **Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

 **Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

 **He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

 **"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

 **Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

 **"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

 **"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on MountOlympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

 **"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in America?"**

 **"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

 **"The what?"**

"I know Percy it was very confusing in the beginning." Nico said

 **"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know—or as I hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps—Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods**

 **"And then they died."**

 **"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in RockefellerCenter, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either—America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

 **It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.**

 **"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

 **Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"Or is he?" Nico asked

 **"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

 **And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached..**

 **I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

 **"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

Hestia place the booked down. "That was a very long chapter, now we should do something about this Heracule business."

"I Vote that he should be shripted of his immortalilty and sentenced to the fields of -" Hera

"No He should be just punished!" Zeus

"How about he losses his honor and gets banished from Oly- Artemis.

"Yeah" Hades joined in.

"Naw he was Zeus's child so Hera had to make his life hard!" Ares argued

"You're my son!" Hera

"You still suck,"

"How would you like it never being able to do anything about your husband cheating on you all the time huh? huh?" Hera

"Follow Arty's idea Make him lose his honor anf banish him from Olympus!" Apollo

"Thank's Apollo but don't call me Arty!" Artemis

At this point the demigods slowly slipped away to one of the amusement rooms. Everyone got to this room with a giant playground and everyone's inner child was like YES PLAY!

so they did

 **End of Chapter**

 **Sorry for the bad chapter I know.. it was rushed a bit. I'm also very late yeah. Sorry. Hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter out soon but it's sometimes very boring to right this out and it's also time consuming. I'm sorry this is a very short chapter.**

 **Words: 6, 4006 Date Feb 7, 2017**


	4. Book 1 chapter 4

**Hey guys this is another Chapter. Hope ya like it. :)**

 **Also Hi Allen R!**

So Percy and Annabeth we're in the sandbox. Annabeth was making a giant castle. Percy was basically making was looks like his room but without the walls. Annabeth had a bucket full of water that Percy manage to get. Her castle was about up to her knees so she was basically kneeling the entire time except when she was doing the details in the inside she had a toothpick and was just craving out some doors in the ballroom. Percy was laying on his sand bed, and was taking a nap.

Jason and Piper were in the tree house, Yeah there was a tree house more like a tree house village because there were like seven trees all connected by these rope bridges and each tree had a house. Piper and Jason were climbing on some of the branches to get to this tiny platform at the top that was barely big enough to hold them. They were talking and Jason was grinning the entire time while he tickle Piper, basically three stories above the ground...

Frank and Hazel were sitting under a tree. Hazel just laying on Frank's lap talking. While Frank was making a flower crown for him and Hazel. They looked extremely happy, and they're were so cute too.

Nico and Will were on the swings well Will was swinging and Nico was just nudging his swing back and front. They were talking, Nico was blushing quite a bit. Basically he was putting all thing red to shame.

Travis and Connor were running from Katie. But they had smiles on their faces even though Katie was cover in flower petal. Basicall earlier Travis and Connor threw a bucket full of flower petals at Katie yelling Flower Power!"

Reyna was hugging a bunch of stuffed Pegasus. (Yeah She's a bit OOC in this)

Clarisse and Chris were fighting in the areana, enjoying them selves while everyone else were watching them. Rachel was smiling at a picture she took of Jason and Piper. So she could paint them later.

But in the throne room...

"We should have a vote!" Artemis said "This is a counsel!"

"Fine," Zeus grumbled "Who says we should script Heracule of his immortality and send him the the fields of yeah?"

Hera and Artemis raised their hands. Hades also raised his hand for a bonus since he basically stole his dog centuries ago.

"Who says we should just take away his honor and banish him from Olympus for the next thousand year?"

Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus raised their hands.

"Ban him in general?"

Athena, Demeter raised their hands

"Punish him like my wine son."

Mr. D, Zeus, Ares, raised their hands.

Aphrodite didn't vote.

"Okay we shall take away his honr and banish him from Olympus for the next century!" Zeus declared. he turned to his daughter, Hebes "Can you please get you husband hand him the letter." He waved her off, before she flashed away Hera yelled.

"Also you're not married to him now as he is a diagrace to Zeus," Hera grinned.

"Okay let us call the demigods to continue our story time err magicaly reading of the future." Zeus corrected, he blushed slightly golden.

Hera got up and helped Hestia to her feet where they flashed away to find the demigods. Hestia and Hera flashed in the middle of the areana and almost got slapped by Clarisse's spear.

"Sorry Lady Hera and Hestia," Her voice was a bit annoyed.

"We are supposed to get you guys back to the throne room now," Hestia said kindly, before a yell made the demigods in the areana turn their heads.

"YOU DARE DAB AT ME AFTER THAT!?" Annabeth was chasing a frantic Percy. **(I'm sorry I was bored writing this story)**

"I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, SOO SORRY!" He kept repeating. Annabeth's castle was now a mound of sand. He ran and stood right behind Hera. "I'm sorry Lady Hera but HELP?" He said rushed before Annabeth tackled him to the ground.

"I swear if you dare dab again I'm going to-" Percy dipped his head to his elbow and pointed his other arm in the air.

Percy you're a dead man...

Annabeth Judo-flipped him and ended up dragging him to Hera and Hestia.

"What's a 'dab'?" Hera asked confused

"Well a dab Lady Hera is when you do this." Leo dabbed "It is a trend in the next ten years,"

"Okay then, let us go we do not want Zeus wanting any longer." They flashed to the throne room. "Zeus can you please read this chapter?" Hera asked nicely.

"Um okay sure," Zeus took the book and opened it to chapter 6 "Eh huh...

 **6\. I BECOME SUPREME LORD OF THE BATHROOM"**

Clarisse's eyes widen and she shook her head "Nope, I'm going to grab a some Ambrosia infused ice cream." She got up and left the room, Chris got up and followed her.

 **Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

"Ahh Percy do not worry, Chiron had been potty trained centuries ago," Leo joked.

 **We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."**

"We aren't that obvious are we?" Travis asked.

 **Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMPHALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters.**

"hindquarters," Connor snickered.

 **I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

"Probably," Rachel noted as she pulled out a small box of water colors and a pad of watercolor paper. She started painting the picture of Piper and Jason from earlier as Zeus continued "um...

 **I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

There was an uneasy feeling everyone had, Rachel looked more sad than anything

"Poor girl," She muttered while glaring at Hades.

"Blame Zeus here, I don't go killing all of my brother's children." He grumbled

"Yeah you do," Athena pointed out, her eyes showing she was thinking about every word she said a dozen time befores she says them.

"Find Zeus started it, and He and Poseidon broke the oath!" Hades argued

"but you continued it!" Athena countered "You hold grudges too much,"

"Oh yeah what about you and Poseidon huh? I'm sure even if that Percy boy was a son of Zeus you would be cheering her on with her boyfriend!" Athena was quiet, the demigods were staring.

"Urm hi?" Hades said ducking his head. He tooked the book from Zeus's hands and yelled "I"LL READ NOW EH,"

 **"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

 **He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

 **"Somebody lives there?"**

 **"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

 **I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

 **"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

 **We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.. . . . . . . . . .**

 **Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

 **He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"I guess you can say that..." Someone whispered

 **I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

 **"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."**

Grover sighed "Thanks for trying to defend me Perce,"

 **Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

 **"But he did that!"**

 **"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

 **I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

 **"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

 **Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... ."**

 **"How old is he?"**

 **"Oh, twenty-eight."**

 **"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

 **"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

Travis and Connor gasped and started to faun over Grover you poor satyr. Being stuff in that body for soo long,"

"I never understood middle school" Frank muttered

"What? didn't you go there when you were younger?" Katie asked.

"No in Canada there were some places where they had middle school and other just had elementary to high school."

"Being stuck with grade one to eight sucks" Connor argued

"It was actually from kindergraden to grade 7, so eight year in elementary.."

"WHAT?" Connor threw his hands up "So you're going to be stuck in high school for five years? How does that work?"

Frank shrugged "we didn't have freshman, and all that you were just known for your grade. Plus I live in the USA now..." He trailed off and looked at Hades who like the other gods were bored "No offense but can I read now, you sound like someone who just vomitted their lung out."

Travis and Connor snickered "Fine," Hades handed him the book and went to sit in on of the beanie chairs the demigods were sitting in "Why is this so comfortable?" But Frank already started reading.

 **"That's horrible."**

 **"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career... ."**

 **"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

 **Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

 **But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

 **"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."**

 **"Yes, child?"**

 **"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

"Yeah of course it does..." Hades mumbled "Hey I have a feeling like I'm going to be the bad guy in the story, how come?"

"Erm well with everyone blaming each other for the stolen weapons" The gods gripped onto their weapons. The goddess just rolled their eyes. "You guys thought hey a twelve year old kid who had no idea about him being a demigod must have stolen it. We have no idea even if he did it, also how did he get in Olympus and steal the weapons, but na lets still blame the poor kid with all of our problems. Also don't you guys have mind reading powers or something." Percy mumbled, the gods stayed quiet probably thinking of what he same

 **Chiron's expression darkened.**

 **"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

 **"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

 **"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods.". . ..**

 **As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

 **Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

"You know I never understood why the camp was so careless about the things inside the forest.." Percy trailed off. "The Greek one was how to survive, because their more of a loner. The Roman one had a place to live, their lucky for a god to protect their city. No when I think of it why didn't camp half blood every have a school like any child of Athena could teach everyone everything." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Athena beam slightly at the child of Athena.

 **Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

 **"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

 **"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

 **"My own—?"**

 **"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

"Wow that must have been really confusing for you Percy," Clarisse mumbled, as she leaned on Chris' shoulder.. (:3)

 **I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

 **"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

"Man I love spear fights," Clarisse said while twirling her spear.

 **"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

 **Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

 **"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

 **Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

 **Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

"Bizarre?" Zeus asked indignant

"Well None of the building matched each other," Percy pointed out innocently.

"Man I remember coming there and being like what the ... are with those cabins?" Frank mumbled

 **Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).**

 **In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

"Hestia!" Some of the demigods cheered.

 **The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

Zeus puffed out his chest and looked proud of himself. Hera looked more of surprised like my cabin is really good.

 **"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

 **"Correct," Chiron said.**

 **"Their cabins look empty."**

 **"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

 **Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

 **I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

 **It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

 **Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

"Yes Percy come along..." Leo said mysteriously, before getting smacked by Calypso.

 **Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

 **Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

"HEY!," Clarrisse yelled she had just came back with a tub of ice cream, along with Chris who had a balloon hat. "Wait did you punks finished the chapter yet?"

"Naw We're about a third in." Percy smirked

The two sat down, well Chris grabbed two beanie chairs and Clarisse begrudgingly sat down.

 **I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

 **"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

 **"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."**

 **He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

Percy, and several of the demigods, along with Hera and Artemis sneered at Hercules. Percy was mumbling some thing quietly along the lines of "Stupid... backstabbing... son of a ... no one... him ... deserve... be a god.

Hera and Artemis seemed to be surprised at Percy who was mumbling curse words at Hercules.

 **"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

 **Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

 **I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

 **"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

 **"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring.**

All the demigods looked sadly at each other, remembering all the lives lost. Clarisse was hugging Aphrodite, which is a sight no one thought that would ever get rid of.

 **"Why depressing?"**

 **Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

 **"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

 **The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

 **When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

Annabeth let out a small laugh.

 **I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

 **"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

Percy looked at Apollo. "Apollo,"

"Yeah?"

"do you ever think I could learn archery?"

"Naw You have that curse."

"But you took it off of me and I still suck," Percy pouted, Thalia laughed

"yeah I remember that, I don't think you or Artemis could every teach him, even if you blessed him for something. He shot an arrow into both of his feet, and Apollo's hair." The demigods started laughing.

 **"Yes, sir."**

 **"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

 **Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ? A caduceus.**

 **Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

 **Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

 **"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

 **He galloped away toward the archery range.**

"Galloped away" Leo smirked

 **I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

"Ahh schools, can't say I went to school this year." Leo muttered.

 **"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

 **So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

 **Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven.**

 **"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

 **I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

 **Everybody groaned.**

 **A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

"See how cramped it was, I was going to get a spot on the floor!" Percy mumbled. "That was why you freaking claim your children"

 **The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

Annabeth ducked her head, and sniffled. Thalia had a sad smile, Clarisse had a blank face. Percy tensed teared up.

 **"This is Luke," Annabeth said,**

Hermes coughed and everyone that was a in the future looked sad.

"What happened?" Hermes asked quietly. "What happened!" He had Tears now.

"I'm sorry.." Hermes sniffled and slumped into his throne.

 **and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing. She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."**

 **"For now?" I asked.**

 **"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

"Hermes is probably one of the most friendliest of the olympians, I mean other than Hestia," Percy noted. All the other gods nodded in agreement.

 **I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

 **I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

"He already know us so well!" Travis said.

 **"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

 **"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

 **"How long will that take?"**

 **The campers all laughed.**

 **"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

 **"I've already seen it."**

 **"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

"Man I didn't think we were that obvious, " Connor scratched the back of his neck.

 **When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

 **"What?"**

 **She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

"Man you sound creepy" Percy mentioned

 **"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

 **"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

 **"To get killed?"**

 **"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

"Percy you're so dense sometimes, ' to get killed'" Annabeth shook her head. "But yeah to get killed."

 **I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."**

 **"Yes."**

 **"Then there's only one."**

 **"Yes."**

 **"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."**

 **"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

"That clears lots of things," Leo said, before cowering under Annabeths glare.

 **"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

 **"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form."**

 **I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

 **"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

"You don't know how stupid it seems, from my point of view Hades sends a fury, who is a eternal torturer to be a math teacher of a demigods how has no idea how he is, " Annabeth mumbled.

 **"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

 **"You talk in your sleep."**

" you know it's a lovely thing to tell me, oh you droll on your sleep also you like to talk about your day in your sleep, don't you sound just a bit stalkerish?" Percy asked,

 **"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

 **Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

 **"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

 **I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

"Way to make me remember about my mom," Percy snorted, and Annabeth flushed

 **She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

 **"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

 **"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

 **"He's dead. I never knew him."**

 **Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."**

 **"How can you say that? You know him?"**

 **"No, of course not."**

 **"Then how can you say—"**

 **"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

 **"You don't know anything about me."**

"Ohh bad choose past me!" Percy snickered, "wait oh no she going to go dictionary mode!" Percy ducked for some reason "Run for your life's!"

 **"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

 **"How—"**

 **"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

 **I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

 **"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

"Man I don't think I'll ever understand how much you can talk in one breath," Percy added.

 **"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

 **"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

 **"Ambrosia and nectar."**

 **"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

 **A half-blood.**

 **I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

 **Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

"Hey my voice isn't Husky!" Clarissa argued, crossing her arms, "I'm gonna kill ya punk for that!"

 **I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

"Sauntering?! And what do you mean big, ugly, and mean looking?" Clarissa growled. Percy held his hands up.

 **"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

 **"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

 **''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."**

 **"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

"And that my friend is how I met Clarissa!" Percy cheered for some reason...

 **"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

 **I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

 **Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

 **"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

 **Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

"And that my friends is how a Percy got the nickname Prissy from Clarisse," Leo said, clapping.

"hey you copied me!" Percy whined, Leo shrugged.

 **"Percy."**

 **"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

 **"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

 **"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

"Oh! Percy didn't come up with the nickname Wise girl!" Leo crowed "discovery!"

 **Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

 **I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

 **I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

"I know right!" Grover muttered.

 **Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

 **"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

"Huh Clarisse, " Percy crossed his arms.

 **Her friends snickered.**

 **Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

 **Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

"Wait for it..." Nico said for the first time in ages. Well he talked more than the other demigods.

 **Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

 **I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

 **She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

"Haha," Leo was gasping for air, while Jason was holding his stomach, Travis and Connor were yelling at Percy for making them laugh so much.

 **As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

 **The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

 **I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

 **I stood up, my legs shaky.**

 **Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**

 **"I don't know."**

"Not to be rude but don't you think that you would have realized that he was Poseidons kid by now? "

 **We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

"Yup, I figured," chris crossed his arm and shuffled a bit.

 **I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

 **Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

 **Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

 **"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

 **"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"And that's a wrap!" Percy look at his imaginary watch. "It's about noon now so how about we talk a break now?" Zeus shrugged and nodded, before he flashed away. A flash in the distanced showed that he was in the Olympus market.

the gods slowly got up and disappeared with a flash.

"well let's go follow them!" Travis said cheerfully and they all started walking toward the gods...

end of chapter

 **So yeah guys I haven't updated in a while yeah I know, sorry. So I wrote a quick, well not very quick it took me over a week, chapter. Also check out any of my other stories, they're not that good but hey I'm improving.**

 **Words: 6,804 Date: Saturday February 18, 2017**


	5. Book 1 Chapter 5

**I'm back for another chapter, I'll see if I can update in less than a month.**

So the demigods were looking for looking for the gods. They found them after half an hour near a room they had never seen before.

They heard arguing so they went to listen in, by placing their ears near the gaps of the entrance.

"How do we even know that their dating?" Zeus asked. Who?

"Yeah, just look at the two of them they're like perfect for each other." Aphrodite squeled

"Not to be rude but how did this even happen?" Hades asked. "I doubt this is the first time an Atlantian and an Athenian were dating or a couple. Oh they were talking about..

Percy and Annabeth blushed.

"Yeah but not directly, not daughter of mine will date Kelp Brain's son," Athena grumbled, "We should not keep the demigods waiting," She flashed away.

"Run!" Clarisse hissed and they all raced down the hallway into the market.

"Wait let's get some honeycomb with Ambrosia just in case they ask us where we went." Annabeth said, after everyone saw her reasoning. They came back and some of the gods looked at them and dismissed them.

"Alright who wants to read," Zeus said, Hera raised her hand and started reading

 **7\. MY DINNER GOES UP IN SMOKE**

Some of the demigods snickered

 **Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

Annabeth looked down and shook her head at the memory.

 **She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man),**

"Man you Satyrs can make master piece," Percy joked "Picasso got nothing on you Satyrs,"

 **and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

"What a great way to introduce Demigods to the world of mythology," Leo joked "Oh and you will face a climbing wall with spraying real super hot lava, with boulders and you'll be a pancake if you don't climb fast enough." Percy and some other people laughed.

 **Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

 **"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

"Wow I sound dead," Annabeth said.

 **"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

 **"Whatever."**

"You sound mad," Percy said

 **"It wasn't my fault."**

"Really Percy," Jason face palmed "Who else could have done it other than you,"

"My dad," Percy said cheekily, the next part Hera tried to hold a straight face for some reason

 **She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

Everyone started laughing, that's the reason.

"One with the plumbing, no offense Perce but you sound stupid," Grover laughed

"I'm gonna hold that to you," Jason said.

"Oh yeah superman?" Percy said teasingly.

"Yup," Not a second later water bursted at his face.

"How dar-," Zeus stood up and was about to change aspects when Jason scrambled to save Percy

"It's okay father, just wait a moment Thalia is going to avenge me," Jason said

"Thalia won't- AHH" Thalia zapped Percy on the butt. "I thought we were friend!" He said, and Thalia high five each other

"Sibling power!" They yelled.

"Alright lets keep reading," Rachel said nodding toward Hera.

 **"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

 **"Who?"**

 **"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

 **I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

"That was a straight answer I told you that the Oracle wasn't a person at least anymore," Annabeth said, Rachel's shoulders slump sadly at the mention of the Oracle.

 **I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

 **I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

"Yeah It kinda was weird, like two girls not drowning despite being at the bottom of a pier." Leo said.

 **"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

"How am I supposed to know," Percy whinned

 **"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

 **Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

 **"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

"Disturbed?" Annabeth face palmed.

"Of all the words you could have used and you choose disturbed," Piper asked incredulously Percy shrugged

" **I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

 **"Half-human and half-what?"**

 **"I think you know."**

 **I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

 **"God," I said. "Half-god."**

 **Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

"How do you know that? I could have been one of the 'minor gods,'" Percy said air quoting minor gods

"Duh, a half bull half man monster isn't going to randomly try and kill a 'weaker' demigods especially if they didn't know they were a demigod," Annabeth said

"But a baby hellhound did," Percy pointed out "When I was four or something. You told me yourself,"

 **"That's ... crazy."**

 **"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

"Hey I find it quite rude for me here!" Hades said, " Over 80 years ago." He held his hand up.

"As well for the maiden goddesses and the goddess of Marriage," Hera added.

 **"But those are just—" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

 **"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

 **"Then who's your dad?"**

 **Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

"At least not to bad now," Percy said.

 **"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."**

 **"He's human."**

"And I find it random that," Percy looked at the nearest demigod, in his view, in this case Katie, "That your dad had Sex with a goddess," Percy said and Katie and Demeter blushed. "If anything I find it an accomplish to have a child with a god or goddess. Until they have to leave,"

 **"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

 **"Who's your mom, then?"**

 **"Cabin six."**

 **"Meaning?"**

 **Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

"You see the pride in twelve year old Annabeth?" Leo whispered to Calypso and Annabeth herself. Annabeth punched Leo in the arm.

 **Okay, I thought. Why not?**

 **"And my dad?"**

 **"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

 **"Except my mother. She knew."**

 **"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

 **"My dad would have. He loved her."**

Poseidon puffed out his chest.

 **Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.**

"And it did during a rather dramatic part," Percy looked at his dad "You have a flare for drama like Zeus." Poseidon smile and Zeus looked proud.

 **"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

 **Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

Some of the gods and Goddesses looked guilty.

 **I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at YancyAcademy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

"Yeah they do in the future," Percy said to make the gods feel better.

 **"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

 **"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force.**

Katie and Piper looked offended along with their parents.

"Hey!" Katie said

"In general, at least for Piper's case, you're siblings are really fashion/love/heartbreak obsessed." Annabeth said, and Piper nodded her head to the side and say true.

 **The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

"Oh you never told me any of them," Percy said

"Thomas Edison," Annabeth told him

"He had a mother that was there," Percy pointed out.

"That's my mom, and she stayed longer than most and pretended to die from a sickness later." Annabeth said.

 **"So monsters can't get in here?"**

 **Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

 **"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

 **"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

 **"Practical jokes?"**

"Yeah that sounds like a deadly prank," Frank said

"Naw," Annabeth dismissed it "The Stolls sent an fire monster that was just about to die from a bronze dagger to the Aphrodite cabin once." The Stolls grinned and high five each other.

 **"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

 **"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

 **Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

 **"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

 **"Why did you come so young?"**

 **She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

 **"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

 **"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

 **"Unless?"**

 **"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time ..."**

 **Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

 **"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

"Wait stuff?" Leo said suggestively before yelling as Annabeth punched him in the arm again.

 **"Ambrosia."**

 **"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

 **Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"**

"You really hate not knowing things," Percy said

 **"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

 **She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."**

"I feel like the need for knowing things are going to get Athena kids killed more than pride." Leo said

 **"You've been to Olympus?"**

 **"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

"And that's when the bolt got stolen, see it wasn't me!" Percy said he said quickly as Hera kept reading out loud.

 **"But... how did you get there?"**

 **"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?"**

 **"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**

 **"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

"Lady Hera do you mind talking slower during a long paragraph with Annabeth talking?" Frank asked "My brain can think fast enough during then,"

 **I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

 **"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem ..."**

 **I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

 **Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.. . . ..**

"Man If we saw that you dropped it down we would have stolen it." Connor said

 **The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

 **"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

 **I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

"Probably," The Stolls said together.

 **I said, "Thanks."**

 **"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

 **"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

 **"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

 **The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

Hermes looked down

 **"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

 **He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

 **"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

 **"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

 **I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

"Yeahh..." Percy dragged the word out.

 **"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

 **"Once."**

"Me and Annie here remeber, there was a ton of yelling," Thalia said

 **I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.**

 **Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

 **He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

"Hey I fed you pudding!" Annabeth said "Against my will though," She muttered the last part just loud enough for all the demigods to hear.

 **I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

 **Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

 **"What do you mean?"**

 **His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp."**

"Special huh?" Leo wiggled his eyebrows and this time Calypso punched Leo in the arm "Ow!"

 **"Somebody special?"**

 **"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

 **The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

 **Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

 **The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

Thalia and Artemis, puffed their chest out in pride and Apollo smiled at his sister who didn't notice.

 **We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

 **In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

"There's more in the Summer," Thalia said.

 **At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

"Ha," Some of the demigods laughed

 **I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

"Ha I remember how happy Chiron was when I told him I was designing him a personal picnic table with an area for a centaur," Annabeth said

 **Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

"I got my hair from my dad," Annabeth said

 **Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

 **Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

 **Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

 **Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

 **I said, "Cherry Coke."**

 **The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

 **Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke."**

"Of course, I should have guessed" Grover muttered

 **The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

 **I took a cautious sip. Perfect.. . . . .**

 **I drank a toast to my mother.**

 **She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

 **"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

 **I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

 **"Come on," Luke told me.**

 **As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

 **Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

 **"You're kidding."**

"Nope,"

 **His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

"I don't know who doesn't," Zeus admitted "The demigods kept doing it though, even if it isn't completely necessary " He said.

 **Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

 **I was next.**

 **I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

 **Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**

 **I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

 **When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

 **It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

 **When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

 **Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

 **A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

"Ugly?" Clarisse grunted towards Percy who held his hand in a 'I give up position,'

 **"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

"Peter Johnson and the Olympians, I like it," Jason said, and Percy laughed and patted Jason on the back good naturally.

 **Chiron murmured something.**

 **"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

 **Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

"Aww," Aphrodite said.

"You ruined the moment mom," Piper said

 **Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

 **My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

Percy looked sadly at the ground.

 **When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

 **That was my first day at CampHalf-Blood.**

 **I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

The end of a chapter." Hera said "I quite enjoy reading," She said

Hestia gestured "How about we take turns sister?" Hera nodded and handed it to her. She started reading, when another flash happened to show everyone old faces that many people hadn't seem since the end of the Titan war.

 **Okay there you go. Yes I haven't update in a while, but I said I would update once or twice a month so yeah. The end is a bit rushed bit yeah deal with it if you didn't want to deal with it, you don't read it in the first place.**

 **Guess who's back. I'll give ya a hint: Dead**

 **Disclaimer: I'm like half the age of Rick**

 **Words: 4,688 Date: March 5th, 2017**


	6. Book 1 Chapter 6

"Silena!" Clarisse immediately yelled, she sprung to her feet and hugged one of the girl, standing in the group.

"Clarisse I know it's been two years, I missed everyone," Silena looked at everyone "Are you still mad at me?" She asked softly, the gods just watched them quietly.

Annabeth shook her head, "no, of course not."

They turned around to see Will hugging Lee and Micheal, and Nico sobbing over Bianca. Hazel stood to the side until Nico brought her to Bianca and they started hugging. Leo and Calypso were talking to Beckendorf.

Silena turned to see another daughter of Aphrodite. Piper stepped forward to introduce her. "Piper," Silena instead hugged her.

Annabeth , and Thalia was hugging Luke. Percy was just off to the side talking to Ethan. Zoe was smiling and hugging Artemis thanking for even if Artemis didn't know what she was talking about. Castor was there just smiling.

Zeus held up his hand, after about ten minutes. "Can you explain to us about the demigods' importance to appearing?" He asked

"Annabeth explain you'll get less people killed," Percy joked and Annabeth elbowed him

"Okay these are all the dead demigods from the titan war." She said and the gods froze "Shizzz We didn't tell them about it yet."

"What?" Zeus asked nervously, not to be rude but it was kinda funny to see him nervous.

"Yes the Titan war, it happened again yeah, we'll explain it later. We're just going to introduce the people and don't kill them." Annabeth said

"So this is Luke he plays a major part in the war, son of Hermes you know. He turns good in the ends and sacrifices himself," Annabeth continued not allowing the god to asked Questions, "Silena and Beckendorf, an Aphrodite and Hephaestus couple, um they died seperatly but still found their way to Elysium together. That's Ethan son of Nemesis. Evil too, until the end and sacrifices himself too. Lee and Micheal son of Apollo they both died. Zoe daughter of Atlas died from trying to fight against Atlas and trying to help Artemis. Along during that trip Bianca died in Hephaestus' junk yard, she grabbed a statue of Hades for her brother and died from an electrical shock. And Castor son of Mr. D died during the battle of the labyrinth" Annabeth finished

"But Luke, Silen girl, and Ethan are traitors," Zeus said

"Not after the war, the war that technically you cause, and we almost died for," Percy pointed out.

"what?" Poseidon asked.

"Yeah, you gods and goddess neglected your demigod children and miss treated the 'minor gods' so a bunch of them went to the Titan's side." Thalia said, Luke was hiding behind her in case the gods wanted to kill him "Gods big baby they're not supposed to kill you whatever the N or fates told them." Thalia scolded Luke

"Please explain," Bianca said, Nico was laying on her lap, and Hazel sitting crossed legged next to her.

"We're here to read stories from that past, and we're like back in time when Annabeth was like seven or something." Nico said, Hestia smiled and started reading.

 **8\. WE CAPTURE A FLAG**

"Hold up!" Luke yelled "ahh there are people who have no idea what happened in the last seven chapters," He said

"Oh yeah," Percy said, he was a slightly shorter than Luke seeing as Luke was older Percy at the time of his... death. "Everyone learn about my school I got kicked out of, a monster killed my mom, Annabeth feed me pudding-"

"Hey!" Annabeth flushed "It was ambrosia pudding so you wouldn't die!" Percy waved his hand

"Yeah, I met you, Clarisse tried to give me the initiation, and she failed.-" Clarisse huffed

"And Percy became one with the toilet!" Connor yelled brightly, and him and his brother smiled innocently as Percy glared at them.

"And I think that's it!" Percy said. Luke and the other what do you call them returned? Relived demigods? Let's just call them returned demigods for now. They nodded and Hestia continued to read.

 **The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

"It's normal for us!" Annabeth said.

 **Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

"Im sorry for interrupting but I can believe how good Percy's grammar is!" Thalia said and Annabeth and Athena nodded. Percy looked at them indigently.

 **The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

"That's my fault," Apollo raised his hand "Sorry just a grudge on Poseidon"

 **Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

"When you say it like that it is," Luke said grinning, he other returned demigods seemed to be slightly more hesitant to speak out loud.

Hermes sighed quietly and looked at his son.

 **And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

"And remember that!" Clarisse said proudly.

 **"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

Some of the demigods coughed awkwardly.

 **The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

"I defeated the blank and I'm also great at canoeing!" Thalia mimicked

 **I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

Luke gave Percy a thumbs up.

 **Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...**

 **I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

"Not to be rude.." Mr. D/ Dionysus started "But that seemed stupid" he said and the other gods nodded slightly at his logic..

 **Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at CampHalf-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

 **We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

"Humble Percy..." Beck said "you were great for a person who just came to the camp recently." His low comforting voice made Percy smile.

"Man I miss you guys," Percy said

 **The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

"Riptide is still technically yours, Zoe," Percy muttered

 **We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

"You're doomed," Annabeth said immediately.

 **"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

"Percy is now the best," Luke said grinning, Percy started to shake his head but Luke interrupted him "take the compliment and stop being so humble"

 **"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

Percy snorted at his guess.

 **The camper snorted.**

 **Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!**

"I miss those day when Luke would just slap me around with eh sword," Percy said.

 **By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

"Monkey see, monkey do." Travis snickered.

 **Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

 **"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

 **Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

"It's so true!" Annabeth laughed.

 **The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

Luke shrugged "Cabin 11's initiation" he said

"I remember my initation, there was no Clarisse that year so I was lucky, Luke had no mercy through" Conner said scatching his chin.

 **"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

"Great and you make a newbie do it" Percy said.

 **He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

 **"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"**

 **I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

 **The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

 **I tried the disarming maneuver.**

"Dun dun dun!" Leo said.

"does he do this a lot?" Beck said, Frank nodded.

 **My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

 **Clang.**

 **Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

 **The other campers were silent.**

 **I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

 **For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

"Me too!" Percy said.

 **"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**

 **I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

 **This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

 **After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

 **Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword... ."**

"Tons probably," Leo mentioned.

 **Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

"Man I remember my first time doing that," Jason said "My pants leg caught on fire, then I fell."

"I remember that!" Leo crowed "I did amazing my first time" he said

"Leo that's because you are fireproof," Percy mumbled, smacking his forehead.

"Technically, you didn't even finish, you had to stand at the top, you just sat down after you finished hooting about how amazing you were," Annabeth said.

"Shhh they don't know that," Leo said pointing at the gods.

Hestia continued to read though the conversation.

 **We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

 **His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

 **"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

 **"So your career's still on track?"**

 **He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

 **"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

 **Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

 **My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

 **"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"**

 **"Of course I'd want you along!"**

"I'm touched," Grover said placing his hands on his chest.

 **Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

 **I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

 **"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

 **"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

 **Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. -"**

"Ha!" Zeus said crossing his arms like a child.

"It's true though," Hera crowed having a smug smile "You're a bad husband," She said, Zeus pouted which was an interesting look for the usually angry or stern looking god of the sky. Hestia continued

 **" That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

"Not that Demeter, Hestia, or Hera isn't powerful," Grover added.

"Yeah at that time the world was very sexist," Percy said, helping his bro.

 **"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

 **"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

"I love to think that's how we chose the domains," Hades snorted "It was a rock, paper, scissors match and I lost first,"

 **"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

 **"Uh-huh."**

 **"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

"Because you kicked me out for another of your sons _Zeus_ ," Hades glared

 **"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

 **"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

"I wouldn't say Bazillion, only a few thousand," Poseidon objected, Zeus nodded with his brother.

 **Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

"Aaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnddddddddddddd it has been broken.. Thrice," Thalia muttered.

 **Thunder boomed.. . . . . ..**

 **I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

 **Grover nodded.**

 **"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

 **Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia .. . well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

"Yeah I turned into a TREE!" Thalia said,

 **"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

 **Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

"Yeah," Hades scratched his head "That's because forced me into an oath that both of you broke."

 **He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

"Should have named it Thalia hill," Thalia mumbled.

"I could have made a ton of joke involving that hill," Leo scratched his chin, "Did you know I dug a hole into 'Thalia Hill'" Leo winked, Calypso wiped the grin of his face my smacking him.

"Thanks, Calypso," Thalia said, Calypso nodded

 **I stared at the pine in the distance.**

"Yeah give the pine Tree pity, now that you found out it was me," Thalia mumbled again.

 **The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

 **"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

 **"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

"No one really told me the story of Houdini," Percy mentioned.

"He was a son of Hades, so yeah and he went to the underworld afterwards he was granted the ability to escape death if he concentrated, then he died when someone punch him really hard in the stomach," Annabeth said. ( _Fun fact: Houdini and I share the same Birthday..)_

 _"_ oh," Percy said.

 **"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

 **"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

 **"No," I lied. -**

"Wait.." Hades said looking at Percy. "What?"

Percy looked at Hestia panicked and she started reading.

 **"No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

"you lied," Hades said. "You can't just take someone back from the dead," He said

Percy grinned uncomfortably "Well Hazel's here." He pointed, Hazel held her hand outs.

"Hey! Yes it is true but leave me out of this!" Hazel said, moving a bit back.

Hades opened his mouth then closed it, then opened it. "Two people in the same decade? You suck Hades," He mumbled to himself, even though everyone heard him. Hestia continued reading.

 **Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

 **"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

"And you are!" Leo said, cheerfully. Calypso shushed him, and he pouted.

 **Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

 **I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

 **That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

 **At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

"Oh no." Clarisse said quietly, Percy grinned at her.

 **When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

 **Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

"Our Cabin actually worked really hard on that design!" Clarisse said.

 **I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

 **"Yeah."**

 **"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

 **"Not always," he said. "But often."**

 **"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"**

 **He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

 **"Whose side are we on?"**

 **He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."**

"slash be bait." Percy coughed.

 **The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.**

 **Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them.**

"Why thank you," Dionysus said. "I don't really have demigods prefer nymphs to mortals, I'm more loyal than most gods to their wife. Though only few gods have wives."

"Um okay," Annabeth said, slightly stunned at Mr. D.

 **Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day.**

"Yes thank you for noticing," Beckendorf said, Percy turned slightly red.

"Me excluded," Piper pointed out as well.

 **They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

"Thank you for noticing," Clarisse mimicked Beckendorf and Percy turned even more red. She high fived him.

 **Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

 **"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

"Then I forget about the maiming part," Clarisse said.

 **He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

 **"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

 **Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

 **My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

"We tried something like that, using the sheilds as snowboards, it worked really fine actually, than Chiron banned us from using it as snowboard, because of the sheer number of people that we ran over," Leo said and the others nodded.

"The injuries were mostly people who tried to stop a dozen campers with twenty pound shields, going down hill at fast as a car." Percy pointed out, and pouted. "I was one of them."

"I ran him over," Hazel volunteered. "It was during a visit where a hundred Romans came over."

"Will helped," Will volunteered himself in third person.

 **Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

"Look Annabeth is being bossy," Travis said. Annabeth glared at him.

"Sexist," She glared.

"What?" He looked confused.

"When dudes be all commander, no one complains, when a girl tries to direct something, bam she's being bossy," Annabeth said, crossing her arms, the other girls and females nodded. Travis scratched his arms awkwardly.

 **We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

 **I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

 **She kept marching.**

 **"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

 **Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

"Like I was a son of Hermes, I don't look remotely like any of them," Percy snorted.

"Hey," Chris reminded Percy. "I'm a son of Hermes." Percy flushed

"Sorry," Chris had black hair and brown hair.

 **"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

"You forgot to tell me it was electric," Percy said, Annabeth shrugged.

 **"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

 **"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

"To get killed by Annabeth's plan," Percy mentioned

 **She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

 **"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

 **It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

"Yeah leave me to be killed," Percy mumbled

 **Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

 **There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

 **Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

 **Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

"As I stand here," Percy mumbled, Thalia zapped his butt.

"Stop whining, I was a tree for several years you're just standing there," Thalia growled, Percy nodded looking ashamed.

"Sorry," He mumbled.

 **Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

 **I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

 **Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

 **On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

"A bit dramatic but true," Clarisse mumbled.

 **"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

"That was not me, that was my _brother."_ Clarisse said crossing her arms.

"I'm sorry but the darkness made me blind," Percy said, awkwardly.

 **Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**

 **They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

Clarisse covered her ears, so did Percy.

 **I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

 **Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**

 **Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

 **They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

 **"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**

Chris and Silena awkwardly patted Clarisse on the back as she uncovered and recovered her ears.

Hestia look uncomfortable reading out loud.

 **I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

 **"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**

 **"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

 **"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**

 **"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

Aries looked grumpy and glared at Percy who still along with Clarisse had their ears covered and were staring at the ground.

 **Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

 **Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**

 **"No maiming," I managed to say.**

 **"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege.**

 **He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

Percy perked up a bit at the mention of jelly beans.

 **Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

 **Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

 **"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

 **She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

 **Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

 **"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

 **They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

 **The game was over. We'd won.**

Grover tapped Percy's should while Silena tapped Clarisse on the shoulder. She glared at her until Silena made a motion of recovering and uncovering her ears, then she got it.

Percy and Clarisse uncovered their ears not being able to hear what everyone said until they uncovered their ears.

 **I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

 **I looked, but she wasn't there.**

 **"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

 **I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

"Meanie," Percy mumbled under his breath, it probably was worse than just meanie. More along the line of as*hole...

 **Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

 **"A plan to get me pulverized."**

 **"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

"You suck," Percy whinned.

 **Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

 **"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

 **"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."**

 **The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

 **"I—I don't get it," I said.**

 **Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

 **"What—"**

 **"Just do it."**

 **I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

 **"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus... ."**

"Took the daughter of Athena that long?" Thalia teased. Annabeth growled slightly at her.

Zeus huffed at Annabeth, and Hera glared at Zeus after getting reminded of Zeus' side children..

 **Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

 **The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"**

 **Annabeth drew her sword.**

"You had a sword?" Percy asked.

"No it was a long broad dagger, yeah it was a sword," Annabeth said deadpanned.

 **There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

 **It was looking straight at me.**

 **Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

 **She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

 **By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

"Geez Percy you were that heavy?" Leo said.

"Hey!"

 **Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

 **"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."**

 **"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

 **Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

 **Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

Clarisse groaned.

 **"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

 **We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

 **"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

 **"I'm okay."**

 **"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

"Annabeth the manipulator," Percy mumbled.

 **I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

 **Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

 **"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."**

 **But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

 **"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**

 **By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

 **"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."**

 **"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

 **All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

 **"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

 **"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

"Wow, Poseidon you do have a flare for Dramatic moments like Zeus and I," Hades patted his brother on his back,

"Extremely dramatic," Zeus agreed "I'm proud of you." He said,

"Are we done?" Lee asked, standing up to stretch.

"Yes, time for Lunch I suppose." Hera said, flashing everyone to the dining place. "It isn't used too often but it's alright."

Hera summoned several plates of Ambrosia, and Nectar, she looked at the demigods and just gave them plates. "Should work like the Roman Camp's cups. Just think of what you want." She sat down next to her husband and everyone started eating.

The demigods looked at each other and back at Hera before their stomach told them to eat. Lunch was pleasant.

 _An: Yeah_

At the end I kinda got a bit lazy in writing this, but I really didn't know how I should have written that part. Hera's motherly side is showing. It's around the same length as my usual chapter the last one was really short though, sorry for that. Urg how can you people stand to read me writing? Still there are people who read this horrible writing.

Words: 7,371 Date: April 1st, 2017


	7. I'm really sorry, I really am

AN:

Hey guys I'm really sorry, but I really stopped writing this story, it's not because I hate my writing or something. It's just a drag to write these types of stories. I constantly have to edited Rick's writing and I don't like doing it.

The last two chapters were when I really stopped like writing the story.

I'm not sure whether to continue it or not.

I guess it's up for adoption, then around a month after I put this chapter up I will delete the story.

Please don't hate me.

~ N


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